Monthly Archives: October 2009

I dare you not to smile while watching this. Bet you’ll find it impossible not to.

This is the brainchild of Volkswagen, who’ve developed a site called The Fun Theory.com . Here’s what they say on their site about their motivation;

This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better.

I think we all know this to be true. Think of the best PD’s you’ve been to, the best lessons you’ve taught, the best classrooms you were ever a part of. Was humour an element of the experience? Most of those that have stuck in my memory have an element of fun/humour attached to it. For me, humour is a vital ingredient that I use in my interactions with students; it makes the course of the day far more enjoyable for both me and them. It’s important for connective purposes. I think most of us would agree that relationship forming is a key ingredient for creating environments where our students have a desire to learn.

You have the opportunity to enter a competition on The Fun Thoery site. The Fun Theory award carries with it a 2,500 (euro) monetary incentive. The competition has been extended to December 15th, 2009. Here’s what you need to do if you’re interested;

Find your own evidence for the theory that fun is best way to change behaviour for the better. For yourself, for the environment or something entirely different. Your entries should be presented with a written explanation plus a visualisation of the idea itself. It could be a simple sketch, photos or a film of a prototype. You decide what will do your entry justice.

For inspiration, here’s another example from The Fun Theory of how you can change peoples’ behaviour for the better by adding an element of fun.

Love the idea.

Long weekend for me coming up. Very happy about that too! Enjoy whatever comes your way.

Now here’s a conference I wish I could have attended, and not just because it was in Brussels and I could really do with a relaxing break right now!

The OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation launched the New Millenium Learners Project in 2007 and they have justheld a conference where they explored the first phase of their project. On their site, they detail their aims;

…the global aim of investigating the effects of digital technologies on school-age learners and providing recommendations on the most appropriate institutional and policy responses from the education sector. The project comprises two phases: the first phase explores the demand side, i.e., the changes, if any, experienced by learners. This phase is now coming to an end. In the second phase, current and emerging educational responses will be reviewed. The first NML conference aims at showcasing the results of the first phase and linking them to the next.

Tom has written a very thorough summary of his take on the conference, full of links to audio and PDF’s of keynote presentations. I’ve read through Tom’s debrief, but haven’t had time to follow links to read more deeply. A good long weekend activity I’m thinking. Tom was also interviewed by the EdTech crewand that makes for an interesting 50 minutes or so of listening.

Thanks Tom, almost as good as being there. Did that sound convincing??

The Global Poetry Project aims to provide a space for members to expand upon their cultural views through the writing and reading of poetry. Members should feel free to submit poems and share thoughts and feedback with fellow poets. The project aims to provide a positive and open atmosphere for all visitors and contributors alike.

Each month a new theme will be presented. Feel free to address this theme and share some original poetry that relates. Contributors are not to be judged on their poetry. This is simply a place to share and grow through original poetry.

As this space begins to grow, we are hoping to receive poetry and feedback from writers all over the world. We will self-publish an anthology of this work with the permission of each writer included. This will eventually be sold, and all proceeds from this sale will be donated to a cause identified by the collective membership of Working Together to Make a Difference. We’re grateful to Angela Stockman for this suggestion and for her assistance in making this happen. We are excited to align our work within this group to the incredible mission of the Working Together to Make a Difference community! I’m looking forward to collaborating with Angela face-to-face and within this space as we take this project to press.

I’m so pleased to see a writing project that links to service learning. Angela Stockman has been instrumental in guiding Rob and helping the project connect to the purpose ofWorking together 2 make a difference. Hopefully teachers and students will find their way to the site and begin the process of creating, sharing and forging global links. If their writing can then work to contribute to worthy causes it makes it all the more meaningful.

The Northern Hemisphere school year is moving into full swing while we in the Southern Hemisphere are heading towards the end of our school year. It would be wonderful to see contributions come from all corners of our globe. I know that I will be promoting it in my school, but I also know that we are about to embark on our Beyond Boundaries camp program and on our return we head into serious exams and wind down. It may well be that we’ll have to gear up for involvement in our 2010 school year. Whatever transpires, it’s a project that holds promise and one that I encourage you to get involved in.

This video is just a little something the students at my school put together to celebrate the fact that it was their last official school day on Wednesday of this week.

Milly Davison and Elly Dixon were the brains behind it all, inspired by a video shown to them by Media/Art teacher Emma Cleine. Here are Milly’s words about how it was achieved;

We were inspired by a video on youtube that we saw, and decided to try to recreate our own version. The planning process was a little bit tricky in working out how best to get everyone to be in the right places at the right time, as well as how we would be able to film it steadily. We filmed at 7am on a cold rainy morning before school, with a set of iPod speakers duct taped to the top of the camera playing the song through at full blast. After a single practice run through we started filming, and on the third take we had a near perfect shot!

Aren’t they just brilliant. You have to know that staff and students from Yr 5 – 11 were all in the school hall watching this at the start of their last assembly. The final shot in the video ends in the foyer of that hall with a picture of the door. As soon as it finished they all came charging in to thunderous applause. Schools really are special places aren’t they? Such community exists within its walls.

They really are a very special group of girls. It was this group who helped me begin my Web 2.0 journey really. They were in Year 9 and I worked with them on the creation of digital stories in reponse to the Literature Circle books they were studying. They produced wonderful work back then, and you can see how they have evolved into inspiring film makers today. Who knows what will lay in store for this special group of very talented (and incredibly fun to be around!) girls. We will definitely be missing them. Good luck to the Toorak College Yr 12 students of 2009!!

Here’s the video that inspired them. It was produced by students from the University of Quebec.

I’ve been playing around with Google Wave for a few days now, trying to work out what it can offer us as a new vehicle for communication. My initial impression is that it is real time email. If you are online at the same time as participants in a Wave you can use it like an instant messaging service. To improve your functionality you really need to install Google Gears. (thanks Richard for enlightening me about this!) I didn’t have this installed and found that I wasn’t able to embed Youtube videos or drag and drop pictures into the Wave. Once Google Gears was installed I was able to do a lot more.

It really only makes sense if you are using it with someone else. Trying it out by yourself is pretty unexciting. You need to be able to see what can happen when there are others working with you. Collaboration is what Google Wave is going to be useful for and I can see a use for it for students and staff. The Gravity gadgetthat has been developed by SAP Research in Queensland offers some insight into how business will use this tool. You can easily apply this type of scenario to school based staff and student collaborative use.

I’m by no means an expert on Google Wave, but there are some features about it that I like. Embedding videos and dragging and dropping pictures is easy and they are going to enable you to do the same with Google Docs. I’m keen to have a go at using Rosy, the translation feature, but first I have to figure out how to get it added to my contacts so I can drag it into a conversation when it is needed. (I think that’s how it works anyway!!) Then I have to find a non English speaking Wave user to see if Rosy translates conversations as effectively as it promises to do. If it did, it would be a huge breakthrough for communication with classrooms that previously had been inaccessable due to language constraints.

Take a look atthe video I made to show you what it’s like. It’s not brilliant, and you’ll probably need headphones to hear the commentary, but it will give you some idea of what a Wave is like. (I made it in a hurry last night!)

Twelve million people or so have viewed this on YouTube, so I’m probably showing you something that you’ve already seen. I am part of the rest of the worlds’ population who has not seen this 3 year old explain the finer points of the plot of Star Wars until today. I’m pleased to let you know that I enjoyed every second of it!

There is something so endearing about young children and their attempts to describe their experiences. I remember very well my son when he was 3 yrs old. He would act out the opening scene of Toy Story 2 in our loungeroom, commando rolls and all, while it was playing on our TV set. I only wish that I had captured it on video for posterity’s sake. I would have been able to embed it here for you all to enjoy.

This weekend I intend to familiarise myself with Google Wave. I got an invite on Wednesday but haven’t had a lot of time to fiddle due to Speech Night commitments at school. Now that it’s over, I can dedicate a bit of time to learning the finer points of this new approach to communication. I’ll write a post letting you know my thoughts once I feel more adept.

Weather looks to be sunny here in Melbourne for the weekend so hopefully I’ll get a nice injection of Vitamin D. Hope you have a good one!